[[Lycian Way#Kayaköy-Ovacık|Two marked hiking trails]] head out from Kayaköy &mdash; One of them descends from the hilltop chapel towards the shore and [[Ölüdeniz]], while the other one leads to Ovacık inland, north of Ölüdeniz, the official trailhead of [[Lycian Way]].

{{IsPartOf|Western Lycia}}

{{IsPartOf|Western Lycia}}

Revision as of 20:12, 4 December 2009

Contents

Understand

Kayaköy, or Levissi as it was known to its former inhabitants, was a Greek town until 1923, when, after the multinational Ottoman Empire drew to close, governments of Greece and Turkey concluded on a population exchange to become nation states ethnically homogenous as much as possible on the basis of Treaty of Lausanne. According to that treaty, all Greek Orthodox inhabitants of Turkey were to be exiled to Greece, while all Muslim inhabitants of Greece were to be exiled to Turkey in return. When the Greek inhabitants of Kayaköy left for Greece, Muslims from Greek Macedonia were settled in their place. However, Macedonians who were used to large and fertile fields in their former land found this hilly and rocky area with little arable land unfit to live, and abandoned the place in favour of other regions, and thus Kayaköy has become what it is today.

In its heyday, Kayaköy was populated enough to support a local newspaper and several schools and stores, but today there is only a handful of natives living there, mostly in the neighbourhood of Keçiler, 2 km north of the "ghost town" of Kayaköy.

Get in

There are fairly frequent minibuses (dolmuş) from Fethiye, which depart from the stops at the side of a mosque on the main street of downtown.

A tarmac, albeit winding and somewhat narrow road links Kayaköy with Fethiye. Follow the brown "Kayaköy" signs from downtown. Another road which is in a better condition connects the town with Hisarönü, which is located on the highway between Fethiye and Ölüdeniz.

Get around

You'll mostly walk around the ghost town.

See

Inside the church

The ghost town of Kayaköy itself, including hundreds of abandoned houses with no roofs or windows, and the walls of some of which are partially ruined, is the main sight. Those not to be missed include the old fountain which dates back to 1888 by the tarmac road, the abandoned church, and the little chapel on the top of the hill (about 20 min uphill walk from the church; follow the red dots from the church), which gives a stunning view of the valley and the sea below, which are located on the other side of the hill that Kayaköy leans against, and therefore is not visible from the town itself.

The church and the streets (or stairs to be more precisely) in its vicinity has been declared a "museum" by the Turkish Ministry of Culture with a ticket office in the entrance which require anyone passing through—whether they have the intention to check out the church or not—to buy a ticket which costs 8 TL pp. You may pass on the early and late hours of the day on which the office is unmanned without buying a ticket, though.

Do

Horseback riding is a popular activity in Kayaköy.

Buy

There is only one grocery store (market) in Kayaköy, on the side of the road past the church, and they don't accept credit cards. Don't expect to find an ATM in this place, either.

Eat

There are restaurants in and around the town, mainly between Keçiler and Kayaköy.

Drink

Sleep

There is a number of guesthouses (pansiyon) both in and out of the ghost town. There are also some bungalows which start from 20 TL a night.

Contact

The town is within the GSM coverage, no matter if it is a ghost town or not.

Get out

Two marked hiking trails head out from Kayaköy — One of them descends from the hilltop chapel towards the shore and Ölüdeniz, while the other one leads to Ovacık inland, north of Ölüdeniz, the official trailhead of Lycian Way.